Time Lost
by GoldeN2202
Summary: Shad should have died. He'd been shattered into pieces by his former friends. So why was he standing here, having a conversation with an Irene look-a-like? (Based on a theory I've had for a long time, where Aphmau isn't Irene, but Irene's daughter.) Open to edits.


Irene was on the large steps of the white palace.

"Irene." he snarled, glaring up at her form. She ducked her head, and tilted it in the direction of his voice. "Why have you summoned me here?"

There was a brief hesitation before Irene spoke.

"I didn't-" that wasn't Irene's voice.

When she turned around he noticed her eyes, burning with emotion Shad knew Irene didn't have.

The girl stopped her own sentence. "I'm not Irene." she said softly.

She tilted her head, observing him.

"Then who are you, if not the Matron?" he scorned the name bitterly.

The mysterious girl smiled wistfully. "I'm not quite sure who I am, I haven't been someone in a long time."

He tilted his head. "Who do you think you are?"

"I think my mother called me Alina."

"Alina." he said blandly. "You don't sound so sure."

"Well, mother has abandoned me, as you can see." she gestured around her, to the great hall inside of the Irene Dimension only palace.

"Your mother had access to the Irene Dimension?" he asked, staring up at her oddly.

She laughed aloud as she descended the steps. Her cloak, a thing of identical beauty with Irene's own, barely touching the ground. "Irene Dimension? Mother sure has gotten egotistical these days."

Shad scoffed. "Alright," he said. "If your mother is who you are hinting at, who is the father?"

"Ah, a genuine question." she hadn't stopped smiling since he'd arrived. He'd consider it mocking, but he had a feeling the emotions on her face were genuine.

"How long have you been here?" he thought it best to change the subject.

"5 years, by this time's standard. Mother always change the rules of time for her dimensions."

He couldn't believe this. Here he was, supposed to be dead, talking to the supposed daughter of Irene.

"You have your mother's eyes." he snarled.

"No, I don't." she denied with a shake of her head. "Mother's eyes have gone from what they used to be, and have become as dark as coal."

He stumbled back a few steps at the sentence, and the awareness of how close she was.

"Stay back!"

"Why?" she asked. Now she was mocking him.

"Anyone from the Bravura family does not deserve to approach me."

She giggled -actually giggled- and stared at him with so much amusement it actually surprised him.

"I'm not Alina Bravura." she said.

He blinked. "Then what are you?"

"I'm Alina Falconclaw. My father's name." His heart stopped. Falconclaw. The name was wrapped permanently around his heart, and engraved on the inside of his lungs. _He_ was a Falconclaw, by heart and breath.

"That's not funny."

"What? That I'm your daughter?" Alina approached again- and wait, when did he start calling her Alina?

"No!"

"Think back. It was 5567BC." 5567. He thought desperately, stopping his movements to think.

One moment. The only eventful thing that happened that year and the few years to come.

" _Irene!" he cried, and she turned to face him, her eyes burning with fresh tears._

" _Shad!" she gasped._

" _What's wrong?" he asked, grabbing her head in his hands. She struggled briefly, but stopped when he kissed her brow._

" _It's nothing to concern yourself with."_

" _If it's making you cry, than of course it does!"  
_

" _Shad," she tried breathlessly, moving to escape his hands again. He wrapped her in a hug, pulling her to his chest._

" _Does it have something to do with the dimension that crumbled?" She froze._

" _What?"_

" _We all felt it. One of your dimensions broke and rained fire. Lucky there was no life there." She shook more violently than before. "Shad, stop." she pleaded. She was close to cracking, he knew it. He didn't hate himself for pushing._

" _Irene." he said sternly._

" _I was hurt." she cried. Her pure tears stained his shirt, but he didn't care. "I was screaming in pain, and the dimension couldn't hold it."_

" _Why were you hurt?" he asked urgently, pulling himself away from her with great effort, and looking her over. She seemed to be favouring her stomach, but nothing else. "Irene, tell me!"_

" _No!" she responded, her resolve seeming to harden. She'd made up her mind, and it seemed to Shad that it was for something more than this conversation. "No." she repeated._

" _Irene, please."_

" _No." she said again, and pushed herself out of his arms. He instantly mourned the loss of contact, but she didn't seem to have any problems with it. He grabbed for her again. She seemed to break a little. "The Stocka bug." she said quietly._

 _His blood ran cold. The Stocka bug was a virus running through the land currently, targeting women and destroying both their possibility for children and half of their stomachs._

" _Irene…" he tried._

" _My stomach is fine," she said. "But my fertility is in pieces." she turned to him, fire in her eyes. "I'm sorry. I know you were hoping for children." she said bitterly. "But it doesn't matter anymore to me. I have no more intent of raising a child with you."_

 _And with that she was gone._

"The Stocka bug." he said, and Alina seemed to brighten. "It wasn't it, was it?" he asked quietly.

"No. But I had the same effect."

He looked up sharply.

"A goddess was not meant to have children. It's been seen with Menphia the Fury, correct? She gave birth to Enki's stillborn, didn't she?"

It was quiet for what felt like eternity. It was a single minute.

"Well," he said. "We're changing that name. Alina will not be the name of my child." he said.

She brightened, and for the first time since he'd met her, she looked surprised.

"Okay then."

He looked her over for the first time. Her hair was a shocking mix between purple and pitch black, and her eyes were a bright and solid amber. She had light skin, but she wasn't pale.

"We'll have to call you Aphmau, I guess."

"Aphmau?" she frowned at the name.

"My sister's name. It suits you much better than her."

"Well, Aphmau it is." she smiled brightly, and she moved closer to him.

His vision went black.

"What are you doing here, mother?" 

"Alina."

"Haven't you heard? It's Aphmau now."

…

"I am offering you this." 

"And I deny it!"

…

"Your father. You think he'll come for you?"

"You have no say in the matter."

...

"I thought you'd lost all emotion, but why is there anger I see?"

"You think yourself so powerful!"

"What, too good and pure to speak?"

"Are you hearing me? Or am I too tainted to be registered?"

"What are you doing?"

"Stop it! That hurts!"

…

"Take this."

"A metal rod?"

"When it glows, place it somewhere where I can be woken from my slumber."

"When it- slumber- Irene, you can't seriously be considering-!"

"Place it somewhere that needs my help."

A voice echoed in his ears. "This is just too delicious."

His eyes opened, but it wasn't the same. He was high up, on a roof, staring down at the people in the courtyard.

"Isn't misery just so satisfying?" The girl, Aphmau, was down on the ground, dressed in rags.

'What a cruel dream, Irene.' he thought. 'For that, you shall burn at my feet.' the person he possessed, Ivy, seemed to glow at the thought.

Aphmau, his daughter, was the only one who felt the bond between her and her father snap, but she already too confused and angry to notice it then anything more than a light flick against her skin.


End file.
